Elderflower Wine

Elderflower wine has to be one of my all-time favourite country wine recipes but it's over 20 years since I made any - and it was delicious......high time to have another go!!

Elder trees are in plentiful supply around our way and just outside my back gate the trees were in full bloom just a few weeks ago. The best time to pick elderflowers is on a dry, sunny day...hmmm, not many of those this year what with it being the wettest English summer on record!! However, there have been a few 'windows of opportunity' and as a result I now have two demijohns of hooch merrily bubbling away...should be ready for bottling in a couple of months!

So here's the recipe:

1 pint of elderflowers - about a supermarket bagful of flower heads
4.5 litres of water
2 lemons
1 campden tablet
1.4kg sugar
1/3 cup of strong tea
1 sachet of wine yeast

1. Separate the flowers from their stalks by pulling through with a fork and measure into a jug until you have a pint full of flowers - add this to a clean bowl or bucket
2. Add the rind of 2 lemons
3. Pour over 4.5 litres of boiling water and allow to cool
4. Add one crushed campden tablet
5. Cover with a clean cloth and leave to stand for 3 days - stirring daily
6. Add sugar and juice from 2 lemons, 1/3 cup of strong tea & sachet of yeast
7. Make sure all sugar is dissolved.
8. Strain into a bowl and then pour into a demijohn
9. Add an airlock and watch it bubble away for about 8 weeks
10. Once it stops fermenting and starts to clear add a crushed campden tablet
11. Leave for 24 hours and then syphon off into sterilized bottles

Check back in a couple of months to see how it's doing!!!!